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Era-6 Armor & Mechanized Tree — Redesign Plan

A design plan, not an execution checklist. Captures the reasoning and decisions from the 2026-07 design session so it can be picked up later. Nothing here is implemented yet — the current tree is unchanged except for the cavalry-mount work already shipped.

1. The three organizing principles

Everything below follows from three rules the tree should obey:

The triad. The military tree marches in a repeating Tank → Anti-tank → Infantry rhythm. Consequence: every tank’s successor is always 3 techs away, with its counter and its infantry filling the two beats between. This is already visible in the earliest triad (Armored Warfare → Antitank Warfare → Mechanized Infantry Doctrine).
The decade timeline. In the Contemporary Era, one tech column (TechTreeX, ~12 units apart) ≈ one decade. A tech’s column is when its unit belongs, not just how deep to research. Units must sit in their real-world decade. (Calibration point found: World Wide Web = 1991 sits at column X≈328, so 341≈2000, 353≈2010, 364≈2020, 383≈2030+.)
Threat → counter. Every unit has a counter, and the counter is a different kind of unit (not a mirror). This is the tree’s balance DNA: Tank ↔ Anti-tank, Missile ↔ Active Protection, Drone ↔ Smart Munition.

2. Three lines = three survival philosophies

The single “tank line” was really three lines, each answering a different question. Splitting them is the core structural insight.

Line	Question it answers	Progression	Capstone
Main battle	survive the hit (mass + intercept)	Infantry → Medium → Universal → MBT	Interceptor Tank (APS)
Light / recon	don’t get hit (stealth + laser)	Tankette → Light Tank → Armoured Recon → …	Future Light Tank (ex–”Stealth Tank”)
Carrier	keep the soldier alive (protected delivery)	APC → Amphibious Transport → IMV → …	Future APC

Key realization: the Stealth Tank was never a real continuation of the tank concept — stealth is a different survival philosophy, and the PL-01 is literally a light tank (~35 t, CV90-based). So it becomes the Future Light Tank, capstone of the light/recon line, and the main line ends cleanly at the Interceptor Tank (peak of the armor/protection ladder).

The armor/protection ladder (runs under the main line)

Sloped Armor → Composite Armor → Reactive Armor → Active Protection Systems — each a better answer to how do I survive being hit. Reactive armor is “just a patch” (bolt-on ERA, a spacer/prereq to push APS back); APS is the paradigm shift (defeats the incoming round entirely), so it carries the heavy defensive bonus.

3. The main-line 14-step chain (data-verified)

Steps 1–4 are the Era-5 lead-in (already correctly wired in the data). Steps 5–14 are the Era-6 triads. Legend: ✅ correct · ✏️ rename display · ➡️ move unit’s unlock · 🆕 new · 🎨 re-theme.

#	Tech (display)	Unit	State
1	Combustion Engine	Tankette	⚠️ no `CombustionEngine` tech exists; `Tankettes` on Automobile+Tank Warfare — decide entry point
2	Tank Warfare	Infantry Tank	✅ `InfantryTanks` ← `Era5_TankWarfare`
3	Anti Tank Gun	AT Halftrack + Mech. Infantry	✅ both ← `Era5_AntiTankGun`
4	Modern Highway	Towed Gun Howitzer	✅ `TowedGunHowitzers` ← `Era5_ModernHighway`
5	Sloped Armor	Medium Tank	✏️ `SlopedArmor` “Reactive Armor”→”Sloped Armor” · ➡️ `MediumTanks` (from Era6_05) · reposition early · 🎁 relocate its bonuses→APS
6	Anti Tank Warfare	Tank Destroyer	✅
7	Mechanized Operations	APC	🆕 new tech (rename a placeholder) · ➡️ `ArmouredPersonnelCarriers` (from MechInfDoctrine)
8	Armoured Warfare (`Era6_05`)	Universal Tank	🆕 clone Universal Tank from MBT → assign to Era6_05
9	Wire Guided Missile	M901 ITV	✏️ `WireGuidedMissile` “Transistor”→”Wire Guided Missile” · 🆕 M901 ITV vehicle
10	Mechanized Infantry Doctrine	Amphibious Transport	🆕 clone Amphibious Transport
11	Composite Armor (`Era6_23`)	Main Battle Tank	✅
12	Armoured Combat Support (`SelfPropelledArtillery`)	Infantry Fighting Vehicle	🎨 re-theme `AntiTankIFV`→”IFV”
13	Protected Mobility (`DartAmmunition`)	Infantry Mobility Vehicle + Mobile Artillery	✏️ rename→”Protected Mobility” · 🆕 IMV (mine-resistant, Casspir-style) · Mobile Artillery already here
14	Active Protection Systems	Interceptor Tank	🆕 clone Interceptor Tank · 🎁 receives Sloped Armor’s relocated bonuses

Actual workload: ~3 display renames, 1 new tech (Mechanized Operations), 2 unit moves, 5 clones (Universal Tank, M901 ITV, Amphibious Transport, IMV, Interceptor Tank), 1 bonus relocation, plus prereq wiring to keep the chain linear.

Naming notes (internal ≠ display drift to be aware of)

Era6_23 displays “Composite Armor” via a loc key (%Technology_Era6_23Title).
WireGuidedMissile currently displays “Transistor” (wrong — rename).
SlopedArmor currently displays “Reactive Armor” (it’s vacating that name to become “Sloped Armor”; the “Reactive Armor” name then goes to a fresh placeholder — see §5).

4. Unit identities / real-world anchors (for modelling & flavor)

Universal Tank = the Centurion — the post-WWII “universal tank” that merged the cruiser/medium and infantry-tank doctrines; the conceptual bridge to the MBT. (Clone from MBT, dial stats down a notch.)
M901 ITV = TOW carrier (the vehicle form of Wire-Guided-Missile; TOW-Infantry is the dismount).
Amphibious Transport = wheeled amphibious APC, LAV / Stryker / TPz-Fuchs family. “LAV” is the era-correct (‘80s) generic; “Stryker” is the 2000s descendant.
Infantry Mobility Vehicle (IMV) = mine-resistant carrier. Anchor to the Casspir/Buffel (South African, ~1980) — the origin of the MRAP concept, so it’s authentically ’80s. Trait: mine/trap immunity.
Interceptor Tank = APS-equipped MBT (Trophy/Arena/Afghanit, ~2011). Kinetic active defense.

5. The future / endgame cluster (the big design payoff)

The late tree resolves into a self-justifying web where every tech answers the threat the next one creates.

Two future capstones (same tech, opposite doctrine)

The Future Light Tank uses light both ways: cloak to vanish, high-power laser to shoot down incoming ATGMs and drones. This is what finally gives Directed Energy Weapons → Military Laser a real home (they power the laser) instead of drifting toward the naval branch.
The Future APC deliberately does not rely on stealth — an APC full of dismounts can’t gamble lives on invisibility, and stealth fails at short range against sophisticated swarms. It endures instead. Carrier-line through-line: keep the soldier alive, re-armored against each era’s killer (small arms → mines/IEDs → drones/ATGMs).

Reactive Armor spacer (fixes a pacing bug)

Relocating SlopedArmor to be the early Medium-Tank node removes the spacer it was providing between Protected Mobility and APS (currently …Protected Mobility → SlopedArmor → APS). Reinstate a fresh “Reactive Armor” node (rename a spare Era6_##) in that gap — light “patch” tech, token defensive bonus, no headline unit. Restores the distance and finally homes the “reactive armor is just a patch” concept. (Trade-off: bends “tanks 3 apart” by one step at the capstone — acceptable at the endgame.)

Chronology pass (units in their real decades)

By the decade calibration, APS (Trophy, 2011) is ~2 decades too early — it’s parked at column ~328 (1990s, next to WWW/Fuzzy Logic). Correct the late cluster rightward:

Move APS/Interceptor right into the ~2010 column (353).
Push Stealth/Future Light Tank further into the future (~2020 column, 364).
Moving Directed Energy Weapons (341) and Military Laser (Era6_29, 364) frees exactly those columns. Dependencies to re-point when they move: ActiveCamouflage prereq → ActiveProtectionSystems; FutureTechnology prereq (off Era6_29) → something else.
Open question: do DEW + Military Laser go naval (extend Stealth Ship — thematically apt for shipboard lasers) or stay land feeding the Future Light Tank’s laser? Leaning land, since the laser capstone gives them a clearer home.

6. Drones & the counter — balance solved

The modern threat/counter pair that extends the tree’s DNA into the drone age:

Drone = a miniature airplane that covers long distance economically. Cheap, long-range, flexible, slow, interceptable. Owns the strategic initiative (comes from anywhere, in numbers). Currently the unit DroneSquadFPV is orphaned (no tech unlocks it) — it’s unobtainable in-game. Give it an attack-drone tech (Loitering Munitions / Attack Drones / Kamikaze Drones — not “Smart Munitions”, see below).
Smart Munition = a high-speed self-steering projectile that intercepts moving targets. A missile-shell hybrid (Excalibur/Copperhead lineage); guided enough to hit a small evasive drone, fast enough to catch it, cheap enough to be economical, and not itself a drone — so it’s the real counter without collapsing into a drone-vs-drone arms race. Short range = point defense (protects a bubble, not the map), which is exactly what keeps both the drone and its counter honest.

Why Smart Munition is THE counter (each alternative has a fatal gap): drone-vs-drone = arms race; dumb flak = misses the jinking target; SAM = hits but ruins the cost exchange; smart munition = hits, affordable, non-drone.

Escalation ladder (rock-paper-scissors, all realistic):

Radio FPV drones → beaten by Electronic Warfare (jam the link) — secondary counter, not yet a unit; would slot in the signals branch (CellularNetwork/Ethernet).
Autonomous “smart” attack drones → beat EW (no link to jam).
Smart Munitions (guided interceptor) + laser/flak → hard-kill within range, saturation-limited.

Naming resolution: “Smart Munitions” = the guided-shell counter (defensive/precision). The FPV attack drone takes a drone name (Loitering/Attack/Kamikaze). Threat and counter get different concepts and different words.

7. Existing counter-drone assets (data)

AntiAirDefence (SAM-type) ← GuidedMissiles. Keep for big drones/aircraft (bad economics vs cheap FPVs).
AntiAirGuns exists — the natural home for a smart/airburst counter-UAS round (the Gepard lesson).
No Electronic Warfare / jammer unit exists — the missing secondary counter.

8. Open decisions (resolve before building)

Step 1 entry point — which existing early tech represents “Combustion Engine” (Automobile?), or leave the Tankette where it is.
Era6_05 fallout — when Medium Tank leaves for Sloped Armor and Universal Tank arrives, do the recon/light units (RedArmyTanks, ArmouredRecon, LightTanks) stay on Armoured Warfare or move?
SP-Artillery double (steps 10 & 13) — single (Protected Mobility only) or intentional double-unlock?
DEW + Military Laser — naval branch, or stay land feeding the Future Light Tank laser?
Cadence vs spacer — accept the one-step cadence bend at the capstone for the Reactive Armor spacer?
Which future vehicle to build first (Future Light Tank vs Future APC), and whether the Future APC is a distinct unit or a variant.

9. Execution note

When this gets built: one triad/beat at a time — make the change, export, load a save, read the newest Diagnostics (…).html (the real error lives there, not in the generic “Mismatched mods” dialog), commit the verified beat, move on. That’s the rhythm that turned the July tech-reorg into clean verified commits. Watch the unlock-event family rule: every unit inside one UnlockConstructible event must share a SerializableFamily, or activation fails — give a unit its own event when in doubt.

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